ABSTRACT
A total of 9,959 ultrasonography studies of the upper excretory urinary system during the first three days of life of all the children born in this centre were carried out over a period of three years. Sonographic abnormalities were found in 125 patients (1.26 per 100) consisting of: Prominent pelvis in 35, pyelic ectasia in 45, hydronephrosis in 16, ureterohydronephrosis in seven, renal agenesis in 14, multicystic kidney in two, renal ectopia en two, other anomalies in four. There had been prenatal sonographic diagnosis of the urinary tract abnormality in 24 patients, all with pyelic ectasia or hydronephrosis. The sonography of the patients with prominent pelvis normalized before three months of age. Intravenous urography was performed on most of the remaining 90 patients, confirming the diagnosis in the greater part, and serial voiding cystourethrography which detected vesicoureteric reflux in 21 of 77 patients. The definitive diagnosis was arrived at in all patients after carrying out the sonography and the uroradiological test. This made prophylactic antibiotic treatment possible in many of the cases and surgical correction of the anomaly in 30, performing pyeloureteroplasty in 11, neo-ureterocystostomy in 10, nephrectomy in five, heminephroureterectomy in three and derivation to the skin in one. Twenty of these patients were operated before three months of age. The number of uropathies operated at early ages at this centre has risen remarkably since introduction of systematic neonatal urinary sonography.
